Tony had his heart set on an Ovation guitar.  They weren’t available in Johannesburg so he got another make he liked.  Around the time Asha was born,  he went back to the music shop to have a look around.  The guy was surprised to see him.  The exact Ovation Tony had been looking for had been brought in the day before.  He had no way of contacting Tony to let him know.

It was good and so pleasing.   It just wasn’t perfect because he didn’t have the money for it.  It was R 1,500. He told the guy he would get back to him.  It was taken off the shelf and he was given 24 hours to decide.  That day someone gave him R500.00 and Peter bought his old guitar from him for R500.00.  Another friend gave us R500.00 towards our hospital bill but he was happy for us to use it however we needed to.  We were on the lowest rung of income earners so the hospital agreed that we could pay R 50.00 a month.   That meant that Tony could go to the music shop and pay for the guitar.   It all happened in 24 hours and Ash was going to be paid off in instalments.

Walking out of the hospital with our baby was one of our proudest moments.  Tony, known for driving on the wild side, drove about 20 kms an hour along the highway.  I sat there smiling and wondering how long it would last.  It lasted until we got home.

Tony took two weeks off work and people from the church brought us meals every day.  We were so spoilt.  We didn’t have a TV but we watched the series “Roots” from beginning to end whenever Ash was asleep.  The midwives had taught me how to get her to sleep four hours at a time by fully feeding her.  I never fed her without my clock right next to me and I was determined that she was going to sleep through the night by 6 weeks.   Between bouts of mastitis and happy hour every day from 5-6 pm we didn’t give up.  When she struggled to sleep we put her in her carrycot on top of the tumble drier.  She thought she was in the car; it worked every time.  She was sleeping through the night, in her own room, by the time she was 6 weeks old.  It was nice to have our room back.

Life was stretching.  Tony got busy with his prison and church work.  He was a great dad but somehow I got resentful of his freedom to come and go as he wanted to.  I wasn’t used to being left out of anything.  Suddenly I couldn’t attend meetings and when I did, I had to take my crying baby outside.  I couldn’t see the point.   I started to withdraw and lose my intimacy with God.  I was consumed with feeding, bathing, consoling and sleeping.  I loved it all and I loved my baby, but I just couldn’t seem to love anyone or anything else.  I became more and more negative and spiritually disconnected.

The community in Buccleuch wasn’t working.  No one was prepared to really commit to it so we shut it down and we all went back to Waverley.  We had made some good friends.   It was good to experience what it was like to start a new community but we were very aware that there was so much more we needed to learn before we tried it in India.